Fifty Shades is an
entertaining love story with flawed characters, a flawed plot, but enjoyable
all the same. It has received kudos for
getting women to read, condemnation for telling women they should allow
themselves to be subjugated, and been the topic of many, many blog posts (+1,
with mine:).
The key to getting people to read is to find books or
magazines (or whatever) that captures their interest (I blame Sweet Valley High for my addiction). Whether you are a kid or an adult,
unless you will get paid to read something, you won't read it if it doesn't
interest you. For me, 50 Shades deserves kudos because it prompted
people who haven't read in years to pick up a book. That is really all I needed to know to
declare the book a success -- and I felt that before I'd ever read the book.
For people who like a little more persuasion in this argument, here goes... Fifty Shades has gotten people talking,
which created an environment for a lot of women to openly read this book. They could claim they like romance or claim
they were just reading it to find out what everyone was talking about. But they are reading. If they are already reading, their lives
won't change and those readers will continue reading whatever books they
normally read. If a 50 Shades reader hasn't read a book in years she (or he) may now
pick up another book this year...and maybe another. Rah, rah, sis boom bah-- READING!
I've read romance novels for years, some of which edge into
erotic territory. I've read some erotica
too. In my opinion, 50 Shades is in solid romantica territory, just in a trilogy
format. For people who aren't familiar
with romantica, it is a romance novel that is more sexually explicit than a
traditional romance novel, and sometimes goes into BDSM territory. It is about two consenting adults who explore
their own sexuality and how to bring each other pleasure. There is trust that both parties will stop if
one of them says stop. Romantica also
contains a love story, which 50 Shades
clearly has. To be blunt, on the
romantica front, there really is nothing special about 50 Shades; it has been done (and then some) before. This book may make romantica more mainstream,
which is why I see Ana sitting behind the Fonze on his motorcycle as he jumps
over the shark tank. Between 50 Shades (romantica) and Twilight (paranormal), these romance
sub-genres are now over-exposed, so I am now going to look for a new romance
sub-genre if I want creative and original stories. Steampunk? Futuristic sci-fi? Or back to good old-fashion regency romance?
For people who claim that 50 Shades will encourage women to allow themselves to be
subjugated...well, that is going to depend on the woman and her life
situation. Ana stands up for herself on
several occasions. She clearly draws the
line on what she isn't comfortable with sexually. Christian showed he was willing to change
himself by talking about his past, giving up his friendship with Mrs. Robinson,
and letting go of the control he wants to
have over Ana. I'm not saying Ana is
a perfect example of feminist womanhood, but -- seriously people -- if someone
is using a romance novel heroine as a model of who she is going to be in life,
she's got bigger issues than whether or not she read 50 Shades. Now, why did I mention the Dragon Tattoo series at the
beginning? Because, to compare the two
trilogies, no one has been worried that women who read the Dragon Tattoo series become a hacker
with violent reactions like Lisabeth Salander or men who read it will become
commitment-phobes like Blomkvist. Why? Because
we know it is fiction!
On an unrelated point, 50
Shades is not fan fiction, regardless of what the author says. It may have been inspired by the Twilight series, but since the author
didn't use any Twilight characters,
it is not fan fiction. The only
similarity between Twilight and 50 Shades is that they took place in the
northwest US. The heroine may be on the
skinny side, but so are a lot of other characters in a lot of other books. (Sorry, but this claim has bugged the hell
out of me and I just had to vent.)
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